Jeremy Gallen's Movie Reviews

Dude, Where's My (Undiscovered) Country?

After the critical and commercial failure of the fifth Star Trek TOS film, the following movie was originally planned as a prequel but discarded due to negative reaction from the original cast and Trekkies. Since the 25th anniversary of The Original Series was coming, the producers wanted to do something special for that occasion, with director Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn writing a script with Leonard Nimoy's help touching upon the end of the Cold War, the final result being Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, billed as a sendoff for the cast of the original series.

Apparently, the Klingons allow cellphones at their trials.

In 2293, the USS Excelsior under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu discovers that the Klingon moon Praxis is destroyed in a mining accident, also destroying the Klingon homeworld's ozone layer and throwing the Empire into turmoil. Not wanting another war with the United Federation of Planets, the Klingons seek peace, with the Enterprise meeting with the Klingon Chancellor, whom they begin escorting to Earth, to Captain Kirk's chagrin. However, on the way, the chancellor is killed, with Kirk and Dr. McCoy being tried and found guilty of the assassination (despite the defense of Klingon lawyer Colonel Worf, played by none other than Michael Dorn himself but is allegedly not related to his The Next Generation character of the same name).

"We need to rescue Kirk and Bones, dumbasses!"

In the prison colony they're sentence to, a shapeshifter helps them escape, and various other crap occurs leading to the conclusion, with some decent twists, and other interesting elements such as the Federation President being played by Kurtwood Smith, whom I best know as my all-time favorite TV sitcom dad, Red Forman from That '70s Show. Overall, The Undiscovered Country was a great sendoff for the TOS cast, one of the stronger entries of the series with a great narrative, cast, writing, twists, and such, although the technological inferiority is still noticeable. Regardless, it still has a place in the franchise's storied history.

The Good	The Bad
Great plot with good twists. Nice cast performances. Good visual effects. Excellent music. Surprise appearances from Next Generation cast members.	Typical Trek technological awkwardness.
The Bottom Line
A great sendoff for the TOS cast.